For my part, this only confirms that Samsung's YOUM display is pure techno-push, and that they haven't found no killer application yet.

Their display is too expensive for use in mainstream phones, so they want a high added-value application to ramp-up volumes and lower costs; this is a smart move. Nevertheless I doubt they will find market traction at short or mid term for their foldable displays.

I would have thought Samsung would make it a condition of the competition that it would be free to commercialize any device idea thrown up if it saw fit and that entrants rights with regard to idea would pass to Samsung.

Isn't that why they are holding the competition and handing out the prize money?

They are not doing it for altruistic reasons.

Surely is similar model to X-factor, American Idol.....you offer a prize to incentivize entrants and make it a condition that winners sign with the organizer to go to market.

The key factor with rollable displays is what is the tightest radius of curvature achievable before delaminating transparent electrodes used for display definiton.

Which is one reason there are none...only the vaguely bendable ones in Samsung's first class.

The idea is pretty good but I wonder if people retain the rights to their ideas in this situation. Especially the ones who don't receive backing from samsung. I haven't read the fine print, but it seems like many people would be scared to submit their idead out of fear that samsung will take it

This is one way of crowdsourcing. A $10k prize money may not be as attractive as potentially launching a business of your own with a giant backer. It is definitely worth an attempt to enterpreneurs.

To Samsung, the investment is low. The return will be big because of all the submitted ideas. The ideas might be applicable to elsewhere. In addition to ideas, Samsung will certainly gather a pool of talents. The contest is definitely a win-win.